The IBāḍī MOVEMENT, IBADISM or IBāḍIYYA, also known as the
IBADIS (Arabic : الاباضية‎‎, al-Ibāḍiyyah), is a school
of
IslamIslam dominant in
OmanOman . It is also found in
AlgeriaAlgeria ,
TunisiaTunisia ,
LibyaLibya and
East AfricaEast Africa . The movement is said to have been founded 20
years after the death of the Muslim prophet
MuhammadMuhammad , predating both
the
Sunni and
Shia denominations. Some historians believe that the
denomination is a reformed sect of the
Khawarij movement; :3
Ibāḍīs, however, deny anything more than a passing relation to the
Khawarij and point out that they merely developed out of the same
precursor group called
Muhakkima . :3

The school derives its name from ʿAbdu l-Lāh ibn Ibāḍ of the
Banu Tamim . Ibn Ibad was responsible for breaking off from the wider
Kharijite movement roughly around the time that Abd al-Malik ibn
Marwan , the fifth
UmayyadUmayyad ruler, took power. :11 However, the true
founder was
Jābir ibn Zayd of
NizwaNizwa , Oman. :12 Initially, Ibadi
theology developed in
BasraBasra ,
IraqIraq . The Ibadis opposed the rule of
the third caliph in Islam,
Uthman ibn Affan , but unlike the more
extreme Kharijites the Ibadis rejected the murder of Uthman as well as
the Kharijite belief that all Muslims holding differing viewpoints
were infidels. The Ibadis were among the more moderate groups opposed
to the fourth caliph,
AliAli , and wanted to return
IslamIslam to its form
prior to the conflict between
AliAli and
Muawiyah I .

Due to their opposition to the
UmayyadUmayyadCaliphateCaliphate , the Ibadis
attempted an armed insurrection starting in the
Hijaz region in the
740s.
CaliphCaliphMarwan II led a 4,000 strong army and routed the Ibadis
first in
MeccaMecca , then in Sana\'a in
YemenYemen , and finally surrounded
them in
Shibam in western
Hadhramaut . Problems back in their
heartland of Syria forced the Umayyads to sign a peace accord with the
Ibadis, and the sect was allowed to retain a community in
Shibam for
the next four centuries while still paying taxes to
IbadiIbadi authorities
in Oman. For a period after Marwan II's death, Jabir ibn Zayd
maintained a friendship with
UmayyadUmayyad general
Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf , who
supported the Ibadis as a counterbalance to more extreme Kharijites.
Ibn Zayd ordered the assassination of one of Al-Hajjaj's spies,
however, and in reaction many Ibadis were imprisoned or exiled to
Oman. :12

It was during the 8th century that the Ibadis established an imamate
in the inner region of Oman. The position was an elected one, as
opposed to
Sunni and Shi'a dynasties where rule was inherited. These
imams exerted political, spiritual and military functions.

Despite predating all
Sunni and
Shia schools by several decades, the
Ibadis and their beliefs remain largely a mystery to outsiders, both
non-Muslims and even other Muslims. :3 Ibadis have claimed, with
justification, that while they read the works of both Sunnis and
Shias, even the learned scholars of those two sects never read Ibadi
works and often repeat myths and false information when they address
the topic of Ibadism without performing proper research. :4 The
isolated nature of
OmanOman granted the
IbadiIbadi denomination, secretive by
nature, the perfect environment to develop in isolation from the
Islamic mainstream. Ibadis were cut off even from the Kharijite sect
because of Ibn Ibaḍ's criticism of their excesses and his rejection
of their more extreme beliefs. The spread of Ibadism in Oman
essentially represents the triumph of theology over tribal feudalism
and conflict.

Ibadis have been referred to as tolerant Puritans or as political
quietists because of their preference to solve differences through
dignity and reason rather than with confrontation, as well as their
tolerance for practising Christians and Jews sharing their
communities.

Ibadism's movement from
Hijaz to
IraqIraq and then further out made Ibadi
historian al-Salimi once write that Ibadism is a bird whose egg was
laid in
MedinaMedina , hatched in
BasraBasra and flew to Oman.

Ibadis state, with reason, that their school predates that of
mainstream Islamic schools, and Ibadism is thus considered to be an
early and highly orthodox interpretation of Islam.

DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES WITH OTHER DENOMINATIONS

Ibāḍīs have several doctrinal differences with other
denominations of Islam, chief among them:

*
GodGod will not show himself to Muslims on the Day of Judgment , a
belief shared with Shias. Sunnis believe that Muslims will see
GodGod on
the Day of Judgment.
* The
Quran was created by
GodGod at a certain point in time. This
belief is shared with the
Mutazila , whereas Sunnīs hold the Quran
to be co-eternal with God, as exemplified by the suffering of Ahmad
ibn Hanbal during the miḥnah .
* Like the
Mutazila and Shias, they interpret anthropomorphic
references to
GodGod in the Qur'an symbolically rather than literally.
* Their views on predestination are like the
Ashari Sunnis (i.e.
occasionalism ).
* It is unnecessary to have one leader for the entire Muslim world,
and if no single leader is fit for the job, Muslim communities can
rule themselves. That is different from both the
Sunni belief of
CaliphateCaliphate and the
Shia belief of Imamah .
* It is not necessary for the ruler of the Muslims to be descended
from the
Quraysh tribe , which was the tribe of the Muslim prophet
Muhammad. That is different from Shias :7
* They believe it is acceptable to conceal one's beliefs under
certain circumstances (kitman ), analogous to the
Shia taqiyya .

VIEWS ON ISLAMIC HISTORY AND CALIPHATE

Ibadis agree with Sunnis, regarding
Abu BakrAbu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab
as rightly-guided caliphs. :7 They regard the first half of Uthman
ibn Affan's rule as righteous and the second half as corrupt and
affected by both nepotism and heresy. :7 They approve of the first
part of
AliAli 's caliphate and (like Shī'a) disapprove of
AishaAisha 's
rebellion and Muawiyah I's revolt. However, they regard Ali's
acceptance of arbitration at the Battle of Ṣiffīn as rendering him
unfit for leadership, and condemn him for killing the
Khawarij of
an-Nahr in the
Battle of Nahrawan . Modern
IbadiIbadi theologians defend
the early Kharijite opposition to Uthman,
AliAli and Muawiyah. :10

In their belief, the next legitimate caliph was Abdullah ibn Wahb
al-Rasibi, the leader of the Kharijites who turned against
AliAli for his
acceptance of arbitration with Muawiyah. :10 All Caliphs from
Mu'āwīyah onward are considered tyrants except
Umar ibn Abdul Aziz ,
on whom opinions differ. Numerous Ibāḍī leaders are recognized as
true imams , including Abdullah ibn Yahya al-Kindi of South Arabia and
the imams of the
Rustamid dynasty in North Africa. Traditionally,
conservative Omani Ibadism rejected monarchy and hereditary rule, and
Ibadhi leaders were elected.

Despite bitter religious disputes elsewhere, the Ibadis are realists
and believe that reason and political expediency must temper the ideal
Islamic state.

VIEW OF HADITH

Ibadis accept as authentic far fewer hadith than do Sunnis. Several
Ibadii founding figures were noted for their hadith research, and
Jabir ibn Zayd is accepted as a reliable narrator even by Sunni
scholars as well as by Ibadis. After the death of Ibn Ibad, Ibn Zayd
led the Ibadis and withdrew to Oman, where his hadith, along with
those of other early Ibadis formed the corpus of their interpretation
of Islamic law.

VIEW OF JURISPRUDENCE

The fiqh or jurisprudence of Ibadis is relatively simple. Absolute
authority is given to the Qur'an and hadith; new innovations accepted
on the basis of qiyas , or analogical reasoning, were rejected as
bid‘ah by the Ibadis. That differs from the majority of Sunnis but
agrees with Shias and the
Zahiri and early
Hanbali schools of
Sunnism.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Ibadi-majority countries are coloured in black. Ibadi
people living in the M\'zab valley in
AlgeriaAlgeria

Ibadis make up a majority (roughly 75%) of the population in Oman.
There are roughly 2.72 million Ibadis worldwide, of which 250,000 live
outside Oman. As a result,
OmanOman is the only country in the Muslim
world with an Ibadi-majority population.

* Pessah Shinar, MODERN ISLAM IN THE MAGHRIB, Jerusalem: The Max
Schloessinger Memorial Foundation, 2004. A collection of papers (some
previously unpublished) dealing with
IslamIslam in the Maghreb, practices,
and beliefs.